The effect of admitting fault versus shifting blame on expectations for others to do the same

A wealth of research has investigated how and why people cast blame. However, less is known about blame-shifting (i.e., blaming someone else for one's own failures) and how exposure to a blame-shifting agent might lead to expectations that other agents will also shift blame. The present researc...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2019-03, Vol.14 (3), p.e0213276-e0213276
Main Authors: Lozano, Elizabeth B, Laurent, Sean M
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Biology and Life Sciences
Blame
Expectation (Psychology)
Female
Human behavior
Humans
Judgment
Male
Medicine and Health Sciences
Middle Aged
Moral Obligations
Morals
Motivation
People and Places
Prejudice
Psychological aspects
Social Perception
Social Sciences
Young Adult
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Summary:A wealth of research has investigated how and why people cast blame. However, less is known about blame-shifting (i.e., blaming someone else for one's own failures) and how exposure to a blame-shifting agent might lead to expectations that other agents will also shift blame. The present research tested whether exposure to a blame-shifting (versus responsibility-taking) agent would lead perceivers to expect a second, unrelated target to also shift blame. Contrary to our expectations, people expected greater blame-shifting after exposure to a responsible agent, particularly when perceivers were surprised by this reaction to failure. Discussion focuses on how people habitually expect some people to shift blame for their mishaps, and how expectancy violations when people act in unexpected ways predict the extent to which perceivers expect unrelated agents to also shift blame.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0213276